Cool name for a first album eh? The Lockhearts have been on The Rockpit’s radar since they dropped their first EP back in 2014 and followed it up with the wonderful double EP ‘Tales From the Sea’ a year later. Since then we’ve been waiting for this debut full length to drop and it certainty seems to us that gap has served both the band and expectant fans well.
Preceded by first single ‘Ride Home’ back in 2017, ‘Americana Doom Fuzz’ paints a picture of sonic possibility rather than defining what you imagine might well be a rather narrow musical genre. It’s an album that draws upon myriad influences and somehow manages to coalesce them into 11 beautifully formed aural offerings.
Opening with the vinyl-groove laid-back Leppelinisms of ‘Leatherface’ there’s a wonderful immediacy to ‘Americana Doom Fuzz’ right from the off, like welcoming an old friend after an absence of years, it just feels good; as does the step into ‘The Ocean’ with its picked acoustic intro and Country-tinged Black Crowes stylings. It’s a great start to the album, lower-key than you might imagine, but both songs are given a run for their money by ‘Call For Help’ that follows, conjuring up flashes of everyone from Cry of Love to The Allmans as it creeps and shimmies from the speakers.
This is heady stuff from a band that clearly has not just a reverence for but also a real affinity with American music of the Southern States in days gone by, and one who aren’t afraid to add their own little twist,or roll that moss-covered stone just a little further down the track. If you love what you’ve heard so far then the sweet melodies of ‘Little Eden’ add further patina to the sound before ‘London Bound’ and its wanton harmonica layers on even more, like a further step back into the mist.
The half-way point is marked out by the sweet lilting harmonies and gentle sway of ‘If I Was Your Man’ which gives way to the smooth Southern Rock and slide guitar of ‘Goddamn Pretty.’ Both really though just act as appetizers for the main course: ‘Ride Home’ which takes us back to that magic mix of Crowes and Zeppelin, after all Page did create that album wit the brothers Robinson and this sounds like it could have sprung from a jam in those sessions. It’s one of the main reasons you need this album.
The record is rounded out with the more modern rock sounds of ‘Polaroids’ which take all we’ve earned over the decades yet hint at the essence of vintage U2 or Icehouse. That leaves the brooding construction of ‘Spectre at the Feast’ which adds a moment of introspection before closer the proto-punk-pop-Rock and Roll of ‘Xanax’ leaves you with a fresh summery feeling and ends the album on an unexpected but very pleasing note. One of the albums of teh year without a doubt.
